In the Shadow of Ribbons: Part 1-01: Marnie Nab: Waking Up Free?

Scene 1 of 'In the Shadow of Ribbons', set Within Thalenra. Marnie wakes, expecting an annual ritual, and instead finds potential freedom

There was a routine to being in this cell that rarely changed. She would be brought to it when the man suspected his control was waning, and placed in the chains designed to weaken her will as much as possible, forcing her into sleep for days at a time. She would be woken every so often by a servant to be fed and cleaned, and always treated gently. Marnie lost track of everything when she was in here unable to tell how long there was between visits. She suspected, in those brief time periods she was aware enough to think about it, that the visits by the servant were deliberately irregular, but as she never knew how long she slept for she could only go by how much time seemed to have passed when the ritual was completed. The only constant when she was like this, was that eventually the darkness and voice would come during one of the long sleeps, and when she woke, she would be in the circle, with her master once again demanding answers on her bound soul that she didn't have.

There was one or two times where she thought she could hear the friendly voice from long ago during those sleeps, but it was fleeting and faint, easily passed off as dream. Her memory of the first time she'd heard it was at most a vague niggle at the back of her head now, a faint recollection to search for something, but quickly forgotten when the darkness and voice came.

This year was different. It started the same. She slept and woke, was fed and slept again. But the second time she woke she felt… different. The servant wasn't there, and her head was clear. No fog. None of the lingering feelings of missing her master she always felt when he was away. Nothing. Instead, she felt refreshed, like a weight was gone. The pressure that she had been fighting since she was pushed through the window all those years ago was gone. It was black in the cell. The usual light that came through the small, barred window in the door was gone. Marnie had grown to hate the darkness over the years and instinctively created a small illusory candle on the bed next to her, immediately wincing from the pain of casting without permission. But the pain never came. She blinked, staring in turn at the candle that would normally disappear, and the chains that should have prevented her casting. “They're not working.” she said to herself under her breath. She looked at the chains with their flimsy lock. Normally she wouldn't even consider removing them once they were on, unable to even perceive the lock sometimes if the master told her there wasn't one. But now it was simple to break. He had trained her well, and a single thought of ‘I am not bound’, was enough to release the catch. She stared at it, unable to believe it had worked, that it hadn't hurt.

Marnie slipped off the bed, her candle floating beside her, its flame flickering in time to her thoughts. She put her ear to the door, seeing if she could hear the servant beyond. A light appearing in the room should have alerted them, as should her using magic. It had in the past. One year between sleeps she'd somehow managed to gather enough will to briefly make them ignore her, and the two thugs had come running with the man quickly behind. She'd been too out of it to do more than cower in the corner that time, but it had been obvious to her then that the man didn't underestimate her ability, and was prepared for her breaking free.

She held her breath while she listened, but there was no sign of anyone approaching. Or not at first. As she was about to tell the door it was unlocked, there was the sound of explosion some distance away, and the room shook. She didn't know what had caused that, but it suddenly felt like she was safer in here. She dived for a corner as bits of stone and mortar fell from the ceiling, and hid herself, Firmly, she told herself ‘I'm not here’ and blended into the wall.

There was a second louder explosion, maybe from the master's workshop? She began to hear shouting, voices calling out orders maybe. None that she recognised though. She closed her eyes and sent her thoughts out, looking for one of pictures in the halls of the house upstairs. She'd only done this in the workshop before, never from this distance, but she felt sure she could do it. When she opened her eyes, she was looking down on the inside of the master’s workshop from the portrait he had hanging there. It was a picture of a small boy, with a dog, and he had never told her who it was of. She never got the sense it was someone important though, just a way for him to monitor her when she was in the workshop, just as she could watch the guards that were ransacking it now. Through the boy's painted eyes, she could see four men in the city guard uniform she hadn't seen in nine years. She almost tried to hide before remembering they couldn't see her. One of them looked like he'd been caught in the explosion she'd heard, which she could see now must have happened when they opened the door. He was slightly burned on one side clutching his head, while the other three were trying to put out the fire that had engulfed a bookshelf next to the door.

"Stand back." A man ordered on entering the workshop, dressed in expensive robes. They were like those the master often wore in style, which made Marnie think he might be one of the Order, but she didn't recognise him. The guards moved against the wall, and the robed man pulled out some powder, and blew it towards the fire, immediately extinguishing it. "You two, gather all the documents in here, particularly what remains on that bookshelf. He wouldn't have bothered trapping it if it wasn't important. You, take your sergeant outside and get the healer to look at him, and then join Erian. Warn him to expect traps while he is searching down there. He's always too…"

As the robed man was commanding the guards, Marnie felt her connection cut off abruptly and was back in the cell. She wasn't alone anymore though. A man was crouching in front of her, having just flicked her forehead.

"You should really put up better defences before you go sightseeing." he said, a bemused smile on his face. "I could have done anything to you while you were like that."

Marnie's reaction was instant. She had just broken free for the first time in a decade, and she had no intention of trading one master for another. The little candle that was still next to her bounced up to the man's face and exploded with a bright flash. He let out a yelp, and fell back, sparkles in his eyes, and when he looked again, Marnie had disappeared.

He sighed, saying to himself "This is why you restrain them first. Think Erian." He flicked his fingers and Marnie, who was out of the door at this point, found herself hanging upside down held up by a rope around her ankles, hanging in the air.

Marnie began to yell "No!, No, no! Not again, not anymore." She reached up to untie herself, panicking too much to use her thoughts. Too weak from however long she'd been left asleep to break the knot.

The rope drifted over to Erian, Marnie dangling from it. It lifted her up until her head was level with his. "I apologise for startling you. I may have been a little close, and I guess that might not have been the best greeting for someone locked in a cell to here on waking up."

The blood was beginning to rush to Marnie's head, and she began to feel dizzy. She was only half hearing what he was saying, but now her initial panic was over, she was able to pay attention to what her senses were telling her. Unlike her master, for who the bad news vibe had never left, this man felt… not harmless exactly, but not a threat to her at this moment. She began to pay attention to the man, who was now pacing back and forth in the small cell, Marnie bobbing along next to him, as he continued speaking.

"But that is no excuse for rudeness. Setting off lights in someone's face can cause blindness, and at the very least you should introduce yourself first. Furthermore…" He stopped pacing, tilting his head as he turned to look at her. "That wasn't a real candle.” He said slowly. “You had an illusion up, while coated in camouflage, and trancing. You don't look more than five, but you're clearly not." Marnie began to turn the right way up, as the rope bound her arms and sat her on the bed.

"Now," he crossed his arms, and sat on a chair brought in from the hallway. "Let's start again. My name is Erian, a member of the force sent to search the renegade’s house, detain anyone we find here, and determine if they are to be punished with him or treated as innocent." He leaned forward, watching Marnie try to wriggle free. "I found you in a locked room, clearly in bad shape, so my instinct says innocent, but I have to do due diligence, or my brother will never let me hear the end of it. If you agree to sit quietly and answer my questions, I'll see what help I can give you; assuming you don't turn out to be a child assassin. That was a painful mistake last time."

Marnie stared at him, fearful still, but she was calming down. For the first time in a decade, she was beginning to feel the possibility of safety. A large part of her was saying she shouldn't trust him, this was a trap, a new way for the master to mess with her head. Her senses though were all shouting at her for the first time in a while. This man was how she would get out of here, if she was willing to let him. She took a deep breath and focused inwards, searching for any outside influence on her. As she did, she felt a pinprick in her chest, and felt a thread of something spool out from it. A purple thread. She could see it stretch across to his chest, and touch him, the purple glow emitting from his chest as well briefly before disappearing. There was no sign he'd noticed this, and Marnie had spent enough time hiding her thoughts not to let her surprise show on her face. She had no idea what that was, but long forgotten words came back to her. 'Search for the thread'. She knew without a doubt that Erian was someone who could help her find what was taken from her long ago.

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Thanks for reading!

This is part of a world I’ve been planning on developing for a couple of years. This was one of a few scenes that has sent me down a rabbit-hole of world building. This was my first post on Substack, which due to technical issues I took down and re-added, as is. A few things have changed in this story, so as you read on you will notice differences, but please stick with it.

To continue with the serial, the next scene is here.

To find out more about Thalenra, then the place to start is: